Past clearly is

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The theory is that Barry Bonds turned himself into the Insufferable Hulk because he saw Mark McGwire do so, that he was jealous that McGwire had become America's home run sweetheart and decided to supersede Big Mac by any means necessary.

Now it is 14 years later, and perhaps Bonds should follow McGwire again.

McGwire shot past Roger Maris in 1998 by hitting 70 home runs for the Cardinals, then hit 65 the next year and wound up with 563, career. He captivated America even as an Associated Press reporter found a supplement in his locker — at that time, baseball had no tangible drug policy — and even as McGwire admitted he was using it.

Three years later Bonds owned both the single-season and career home run records while playing half his games in the least hospitable home run ballpark in the majors.

Four years after that, McGwire sobbed as he told Congress that he couldn't answer steroid questions. He took the standard media lashing. In 2010 he finally bared his soul and acknowledged his sin.

Now McGwire has built so much credibility as a batting coach that the Dodgers hired him away from the Cardinals on Wednesday.

“The fact that he apologized was very important,” said Ned Colletti, the Dodgers general manager. “And when he didn't feel he could perform physically he walked away from the game instead of just spending time on the DL, which a lot of players wouldn't do.”

“It's something I'll have to live with all of my life,” McGwire said of his PED past. “I confronted it head-on. And now I've moved on.”

The reason Melky Cabrera wasn't embraced by the Giants, after he turned up dirty, was that he never owned up.

And as the Giants welcomed back their Hall of Famers to revel in the 2012 postseason, Bonds might as well have been in Alcatraz.

Just imagine: Bonds was an eight-time All-Star and three-time MVP before he went XXL. He has endless knowledge streams to share with young Giants.

Instead Bonds has not even approached the bottom rung of his 12-step image rehab.

McGwire, meanwhile, has reinvented himself as a teacher, and when he began talking hitting Wednesday it made you want to grab a bat and start stretching.

“Everybody who gets to the major leagues has the mechanics to hit,” he said. “But most young guys have gotten by on their talent. You have to use your mind, put together a game plan, knowing that the pitcher already has his game plan. Then you step into the box and it's
mano y mano, let's go.

“I've had a lot more failure than I've had success, but that's how I've learned. Home run hitters are born, RBI guys are born, but you have to figure out what type of hitter you are. If you go up there with the idea of hitting it right through the pitcher's chest, then some of those balls will go into the gaps and some of them will go out.”

McGwire talked of patience, of “going 0 for 2 with two walks instead of 0 for 4” when hitters are encased by slumps.

He talked of never “hurrying up to hit,” talked of “letting the game come to you.”

He talked of a powerful mind but also advised against the act of thinking when standing in the box, saying that “let me see the baseball” should be one's only thought.

It's worth something that McGwire came back at all, considering the whispers awaiting him.

In two of McGwire's three tutoring seasons, the Cardinals led the NL in on-base percentage, and in 2011 they led in average and slugging, too.

The Dodgers were 10th in OBP last year and the trade for Adrian Gonzalez did not help.

But the Dodgers gave away at-bats like fruit cakes throughout 2012, and had more unthreatening innings than almost anyone they played. Between them, McGwire and Mattingly had six 100-run and nine 100-RBI seasons. Paying attention should not be a problem.

The Angels almost brought McGwire home in 1996 by trading Jim Edmonds to Oakland, but it fell through, and McGwire signed with the Cardinals.

He has remarried and had four children since then, and was no lock to stay with St. Louis this year if he didn't find a job that let him hang out in Shady Canyon.

Now a shady past falls behind him, further each day.

Way behind McGwire, paralyzed by the thought of those first steps down, stands Bonds.

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